Ebola scare boosting business for St. Louis “Pandemic Kit” company

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – The Ebola scare is causing sales to soar at a St. Louis company. People are buying a pandemic kit to prevent contagions like Ebola from spreading. The kit is sold by Quake Kare, a company owned by Lighthouse for the Blind St. Louis. 85 people are employed there, 50 of them legally blind.

As soon as the news spread that a man in Texas had Ebola the phones began ringing off the hook. They sold more kits Wednesday than they had all year. Some contain safety goggles, face masks, special gloves, hand sanitizer, duct tape, biohazard bags, among other items.

Clint Cruse is a spokesman for Quake Kare, “Given the concerns about Ebola right now and the gentleman who has it in Texas we believe the concern over it is rising. Individuals particularly in the Dallas area are very concerned whether they are concerned and it’s raising awareness.”

The workers that put the kits together are legally blind. The unemployment rate among the blind is about 70 percent. The kits cost from about $12 to $70. The company motto for the disaster kits is: be prepared not scared.